The problem when fake becomes the reality (PETA and Pokemon)

If someone asked me what my favorite things were as a child, I would say both Toy Story, and Pokemon. Pokemon was great because not only was Pokemon Yellow my first game, but it allowed me to explore this new world, discovering the mysteries that surround it, while maintaining this illusion of being connected with the creatures that I am capturing and raising. Besides this, it was a very fun game for me to play and it was especially fun to battle and trade with my friends. However while I played this game, I knew that it was a virtual world and that it was a video game.

On 10/7/12, Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 came out for the Nintendo DS. It still carries those same feelings of capturing pokemon and training pokemon, while still holding up for a modern game audience. The game is good but someone else out there has something to say about pokemon, that someone being, PETA.

PETA released a free game on the next day called Pokemon Black and Blue. In this game, you play as the Pokemon fighting against the humans because the pokemon do not want to fight against other pokemon or be captured into a ball. I am someone that loves animals and thinks that it is wrong for animals to hurt each other and that we should treat animals the best we can, but I also know that PETA is receiving the wrong message from the Pokemon universe and that pokemon themselves are not real animals.

One of the biggest problems I have with PETA doing this is that it is a waste of resources for them and that they can be using their time to protect real animals. They aren’t making a game about Michael Vick and his dog fighting, which were real animals that got hurt. PETA doesn’t even seem to have a problem with actual games where you hunt animals like the Cabela games (there are 36 Cabela games where you hunt deer and other “game” and capture fish). The fact that PETA would spend a fraction of their time not looking after the best interest of real animals is ridiculous.

Plus, we can’t look past the fact that the Pokemon games are very kid-friendly. Yes there is a lot of reading and the systems in Pokemon may be complex for a really young kid, but kids love getting new pokemon and growing as a trainer just as they would if they had a real pet. The whole point of these games, and the TV show too, is to bond with your pokemon (many times referred to as “partners” in the later games) and to watch yourself grow from being a nobody in a small town, to becoming the champion. Yes you do battle other pokemon, but the pokemon never get hurt and they actually seem to enjoy fighting. In fact, at times when there are no trainers around, Pokemon will naturally fight each other for fun and will never get injured.

The obvious reason that PETA choose to do this with pokemon is that pokemon is mainstream enough and a big enough name that it will bring attention to them. But it is bringing negative attention and it makes them look foolish and ignorant. Their version of the pokemon game is incredibly violent too, almost to the point where it is disgusting. I wish that PETA will look more at the facts and see that pokemon is just a game in a fake world, and that they would tackle more real world issues and help real animals.

If someone asked me what my favorite things were as a child, I would say both Toy Story, and Pokemon. Pokemon was great because not only was Pokemon Yellow my first game, but it allowed me to explore this new world, discovering the mysteries that surround it, while maintaining this illusion of being connected with the creatures that I am capturing and raising. Besides this, it was a very fun game for me to play and it was especially fun to battle and trade with my friends. However while I played this game, I knew that it was a virtual world and that it was a video game.

On 10/7/12, Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 came out for the Nintendo DS. It still carries those same feelings of capturing pokemon and training pokemon, while still holding up for a modern game audience. The game is good but someone else out there has something to say about pokemon, that someone being, PETA.

PETA released a free game on the next day called Pokemon Black and Blue. In this game, you play as the Pokemon fighting against the humans because the pokemon do not want to fight against other pokemon or be captured into a ball. I am someone that loves animals and thinks that it is wrong for animals to hurt each other and that we should treat animals the best we can, but I also know that PETA is receiving the wrong message from the Pokemon universe and that pokemon themselves are not real animals.

One of the biggest problems I have with PETA doing this is that it is a waste of resources for them and that they can be using their time to protect real animals. They aren’t making a game about Michael Vick and his dog fighting, which were real animals that got hurt. PETA doesn’t even seem to have a problem with actual games where you hunt animals like the Cabela games (there are 36 Cabela games where you hunt deer and other “game” and capture fish). The fact that PETA would spend a fraction of their time not looking after the best interest of real animals is ridiculous.

Plus, we can’t look past the fact that the Pokemon games are very kid-friendly. Yes there is a lot of reading and the systems in Pokemon may be complex for a really young kid, but kids love getting new pokemon and growing as a trainer just as they would if they had a real pet. The whole point of these games, and the TV show too, is to bond with your pokemon (many times referred to as “partners” in the later games) and to watch yourself grow from being a nobody in a small town, to becoming the champion. Yes you do battle other pokemon, but the pokemon never get hurt and they actually seem to enjoy fighting. In fact, at times when there are no trainers around, Pokemon will naturally fight each other for fun and will never get injured.

The obvious reason that PETA choose to do this with pokemon is that pokemon is mainstream enough and a big enough name that it will bring attention to them. But it is bringing negative attention and it makes them look foolish and ignorant. Their version of the pokemon game is incredibly violent too, almost to the point where it is disgusting. I wish that PETA will look more at the facts and see that pokemon is just a game in a fake world, and that they would tackle more real world issues and help real animals.

I'm going to give peta some credit here and assume that they chose to go after Pokemon because they feel it is giving kids the message that animal violent and cock fighting is alright. I see they're angle but don't agree that Pokemon teaches those harmful values.

In fact Pokemon teaches love between humans and Pokemon. Pokemon are not being used by humans, they co-exist in harmony.

@ImmortalSaiyan: Good points about animal violence, however in my opinion Pokemon is much more than battling and you said it yourself, it is about the connection between humans and pokemon almost like a connection between a human and a real animal.

The funny thing is pokemon basically follows the theory of evolution. Being a pretty left group you think PETA would be able to understand evolution and how animals actually do fight.

Also it's a goofy children's video game. The pokemon aren't really animals, they are monsters that look like animals. Thats why you get monsters that are rocks, pile of sludge, and ice cream cones. Like people in a the games can create pokemon. Those aren't animals.

I think we just need to remember this: in every battle there is a soldier doing the fighting, and a commander telling him what to do. Campbell said so himself.